Special-needs kids make strides in gymnastics program

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, September 5, 2009

Next Level Gymnastics director Amy Mann smiled as as the toddler came through the door and immediately crawled toward the trampoline.

Three-year-old Presley was diagnosed with hypotonia, or low muscle tone, said her mother, Dana Parham. She has been coming to the gym on a daily basis since her pediatrician recommended it to help build strength and endurance.

“Our goal for Presley is she will walk all by herself without a walker,” Mann explained.

Last spring, Mann and Next Level’s head coach Matt Koffel became certified to offer the Big Fun Therapy and Recreational Services program for special-needs students. Mann and Koffel traveled to Southern California to learn from occupational therapist Gene Hurwin, founder of the Big Fun program. When they returned to Midland, they started their Big Fun program with three students. Now, almost six months later, the program at Next Level Gymnastics hosts 28 students of various ages and abilities.

“Our youngest Big Fun student is 18 months,” Mann said. “She was not walking when she started with us, now she is walking (and) her speech has increased.”

According to the Big Fun Web site, the program is recommended for children with a wide range of diagnoses, including those with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, attention deficit disorder, bipolar disorder, cognition disorders, strength/endurance disorders and more.

“Any diagnosis there is, we try to work with them,” said Koffel.

Koffel and Mann work with preschoolers, kindergarteners and elementary school students from Bynum School.

Other clients come to the program on the recommendation of doctors or Early Childhood Intervention Services of the Permian Basin.

Every Big Fun student undergoes an evaluation when they begin the program.

“Every child is different,” Koffel explained. “I’ve definitely tried to figure out what works for them.”

At Next Level — which also offers classes to beginning and advanced gymnasts — all of the students share the space and equipment.

“It’s very important to us that they all work together because that’s how it is in the real world,” Koffel said.

“The gym setting is perfect to work in; it gives them multiple sensory inputs.”

The purpose of the Big Fun program is to integrate sensory play through gymnastics, with students participating in activities such as swinging, climbing, bouncing, tumbling, climbing and balancing.

Mann and Koffel, as well as some of the clients’ parents, said some of their students already have made huge strides in the short time they’ve offered the program.

“Some of our students have made tremendous progress in areas (that) even the parents were starting to lose hope,” Mann said. “Now they all have smiles seeing their child walk, jump on the trampoline and learn gymnastics.”

Nicole Gandy, whose daughter Ashley has been attending Big Fun sessions twice a week since April, said the program “has just made a big difference.”

“She’s always been wheelchair-bound,” Gandy said of her 8-year-old daughter who has been diagnosed with spastic cerebral palsy.

“In the last couple of weeks, she’s been able to walk around in her walker.”

Gandy said her pediatrician recommended the program for her daughter, and in addition to becoming more mobile, Ashley has been sleeping better, eating more and increaing her interaction with family and friends.

“This has just opened up her world to a lot more adventure,” Gandy said.

While the program at Next Level gym is growing, Koffel and Mann remain the only two certified Big Fun Gymnastics teachers outside of Southern California.

They plan to spend their Labor Day weekend assisting Hurwin at the Gymnastics Association of Texas annual meeting in Austin for a lecture-series about the certification.

Their topics include addressing behaviors during classes; teaching gymnastics to special needs populations; gymnastics, defying gravity and the art of sensory integration; and the obstacle course as gymnastics’ best learning tool.

Mann said though Midlanders’ response to Big Fun so far has been positive, she and Koffel continue to look for ways to improve the program.

“We try to be a resource for parents and families and try to help them have some fun in life,” Mann said.